1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resource management of an information processing system, and more particularly to a resource management system and a resource management method which provide countermeasures for continuously operating the information processing system when the system is involved in an overload or troubles, by utilizing a technology for virtualizing the information processing system through objectizing and a policy control technology for managing operation of the information processing system.
2. Description of Relevant Art
In recent years, most of operation services in, for example, companies are performed by using an information processing system. Therefore, high reliabilities and high flexibilities are required in the system.
When a trouble such as an expected overload, accident, and abnormality happens in the information processing system, a quick and correct action is required for minimizing an economical loss due to, for example, stopping operation services, and falling of credit of such a customer who uses the information processing system.
Therefore, a policy control processing technology has been developed for diagnosing a trouble condition and providing a countermeasure for avoiding the trouble when the trouble happens in the information processing system.
In general, as a policy control processing, if a trouble happens an alternative computer is assigned; in a case of overload, an additional computer is dynamically added (processing of this practical counteraction is defined as a policy action).
Here, as a verification method for verifying whether or not a computer system assigned to an alternative is usable, a method for verifying whether or not the computer is already in some trouble has been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-330899 and US 2004/0213153A1. In addition, in the patent literatures No. 2003-330899 and US 2004/0213153A1, a method for assigning an overload processing to a shared computer system has been also proposed.
Meanwhile, as operation services by the information processing system according to the present invention, for example, a payroll calculation and sales management in a company are listed up. However, the present invention is not limited to these, but includes various kinds of processing and functions achieved by using the information processing system. For example, a processing and function for providing services of a Web information delivery, an advance sale for tickets, an online sale, and the like; or services themselves are included in the task service.
There exist various kinds of information processing systems which are utilized in, for example, a company due to different architectures supplied by each vendor. In addition, it is preferable to use resources as efficiently as possible. Further, operation services provided by the information processing system may not be configured with a single resource, but may be configured with a combination of a plurality of resources in many cases, for complying with a complex utilization configuration due to a large scale, high performance, and high reliability service.
In the aforementioned patent literatures No. 2003-330899 and US 2004/0213153A1, since operation services with a single configuration and a single resource are handled, it is difficult to apply the systems of the above literatures to a case where an information processing system is configured with multi-layers and a plurality of resources, and a case to handle operation services (for example, Web system, batch system, DB: Data Base, and ledger sheet output) which have various kinds of processing.